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    <description>Craft analysis at sentence and scene level: point of view, dialogue, pacing, tense choices and the revision passes that fix a draft nobody can finish.</description>
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      <title>How Many Drafts Is Enough</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Working novelists' documented draft counts cluster at three to five — but what each draft is for matters more than the number. From the writers' own accounts.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:53:44 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ines Oliveira</dc:creator>
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      <title>How a Book Advance Actually Gets Paid Out</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[The number on the deal memo is never a single check — it's a schedule of milestones, a commission, and a reserve you don't see coming.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:41:29 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ines Oliveira</dc:creator>
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      <title>Backstory Without Stalling the Scene</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Objects, leaks, braids, and the expensive flashback: Hemingway's iceberg turned into delivery mechanics, flashback rules, and the revision audit.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ines Oliveira</dc:creator>
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      <title>How to Revise a Novel in Passes</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[One concern per pass, largest to smallest: the seven-pass system behind King's minus-ten rule — plus the repair table for when revision breaks.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ines Oliveira</dc:creator>
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      <title>Strong Verbs Carry a Sentence</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Twain killed adjectives, King paved hell with adverbs — one rule: the verb does the work. The four weakeners, the audit, and when strong is too strong.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Christina Rodriguez</dc:creator>
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      <title>Controlling Pacing With Sentence Length</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Short sentences accelerate, long ones immerse: the passage-map exercise, fragment budgets, and the deliberate violations that make rhythm an instrument.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 16 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Christina Rodriguez</dc:creator>
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      <title>First Person vs Close Third: A Scene Drafted Both Ways</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[The same scene drafted in first person and close third — free indirect discourse, retrospection, zoom mechanics, and how to read your own experiment.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ines Oliveira</dc:creator>
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      <title>How Scene and Sequel Structure Works</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Swain's 1965 unit — goal, conflict, disaster; reaction, dilemma, decision — remains the fastest chapter diagnostic in fiction craft. Here is the method.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ruth Kaplan</dc:creator>
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      <title>How to Fix a Saggy Middle</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Sagging middles are state-change failures: no midpoint reversal, flat costs, braided-to-nothing subplots. Card test, repairs, and the cut list.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Christina Rodriguez</dc:creator>
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      <title>Choosing Point of View for a Novel</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[POV is the novel's information contract: what close third buys, what first person costs, and three tests to run before writing 80,000 words.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ruth Kaplan</dc:creator>
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      <title>How to Write Dialogue That Reads Like People</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Fictional dialogue is compressed, not transcribed. The mechanics of tags, subtext, interruptions, and voice separation — with fixes for each failure.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ruth Kaplan</dc:creator>
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      <title>Why Opening Pages Get Rejected</title>
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      <description><![CDATA[Agents reject most novels within five pages. The usual failures — weather openings, backstory dumps, weak voice — are ordinary, named, and fixable.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <dc:creator>Ines Oliveira</dc:creator>
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